A Murdered Peace

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bars of York: the four main gatehouses in the walls of York (Bootham, Monk, Micklegate, and Walmgate).

beguines: a community of women leading lives of religious devotion who, unlike those who entered convents, were not bound by permanent vows; they dedicated themselves to chastity and charity and worked largely among the poor and the sick, usually in urban settings.

Candlemas: February 2, the feast of the Purification.

dymysent: a woman’s girdle with ornamental work on the front half, often in gold or silver, and a silk back.

Martinmas: November 11, the feast of St. Martin.

Michaelmas: September 29, the feast of St. Michael.

staithe: a landing-stage, or wharf.

York, late January 1400

It was deep winter in York, the ground frozen, the short days dimmed with the smoke from countless fires, the sun, when it shone, low in the sky. If it reached beneath the jettied second stories to the streets and alleys below, it created but a momentary brightening that made the ensuing shade seem all the darker. King Henry sat uneasy on the throne he had pulled out from under his cousin Richard. Emboldened in summer when a mighty army gathered round him as he rode west across the land to confront his cousin, Henry had wrested the crown from Richard. But not all the powerful nobles were comfortable with Henry’s unseating a divinely anointed king and locking him away in Pontefract Castle, where he denied Richard the comforts traditionally offered royal captives, even those from foreign realms. It was said that the earls of Kent, Huntington, and Salisbury had plotted to right this wrong by ridding the realm of Henry and his sons, mere boys, and returning Richard to the throne. Forewarned, Henry and his family had escaped the danger.

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